


Cold Tea

by polandspringz



Category: gen:LOCK (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Literal Sleeping Together, Minor Graphic Description of the Headsnatcher Incident in Episode 4, Nightmares, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-18 19:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18125555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: Valentina had the night-time routines of all their roommates memorized. Their loud, noisy movements when they left the room at night, the ways they winded down after a long day- all of them were tolerable, except for Cammie's. Valentina thought they would always end up wishing for a night without her gaming and programming igniting the room in blue light and noise for hours.So, why was the sight of Cammie plunged in darkness and silence a few days after their first battle so worrying?





	Cold Tea

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CrystalQueer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrystalQueer/gifts).



> Here's the Valentina and Cammie fic I told y'all I was working on! Again, this was another request made by Cora! I sort of veered away from her original request, but I'm still proud of it, and wanted to clear it off my fic list before I start my others. Please enjoy!

The corridors of the Anvil were always dark, and the deeper you were to the base’s center, the more it seemed to resemble a cage. Fluorescent lights that bulged off the heavily armored walls, an overall dinghy military gray decor, but the worst of it was in the building for the barracks. With almost no windows, it was impossible to tell when it was morning and when it was night except by seeing who was coming and going through the door, and how quiet down the hall sounded. And with four different people all with their own circadian rhythms, it was rare the hall was ever quiet.

 

Back when they were in the resistance in Eastern Europe, Valentina had not known the wonders of having a proper room to sleep in. Each day, each mission meant they were forced to hide out somewhere until the time was right and then they would move to the next location. But, whether it was a bomb shelter, an abandoned apartment covered in broken glass and ready to blow with a single spark, or the noise of one of the few forests that hadn’t been squashed by the military plowing through, one thing was always consistent, they were alone.

 

So, it took some adjusting to when Dr. Weller and the Colonel told them they would be bunking in the same space, as it would help promote their teamwork and in turn speed up the gen:LOCK program. One of the few benefits of this arrangement was they had their own private mess hall, so they could avoid the noise of the rest of the military when they were half asleep at five in the morning. It had only been a few weeks since they had arrived, but Valentina had already determined which roommates they liked and which ones they were debating strangling when they tried to sneak out of the room at night for some tea or a late night snack. But perhaps, even more unbearable for Valentina was the _routinely_ quirks they had to endure.

 

No matter how quiet they tried to be, Valentina’s ears had been trained to pick up on the quietest sounds, and a light sleeper already, it made for very exhausting mornings that sometimes not even the blackest coffee could fix.

 

Yasamin had been molded into the perfect Union soldier, even if she no longer was one now, Valentina knew there was no erasing the smallest details of her upbringing. It was irreversible, and in that way, not her fault, that she marched with every step, footfalls heavy and almost smacking the concrete floor as she made her way to the ESU each night. Most of the time she would do it around midnight, but there were some days, days when they would leave the ESU and see the Doctor working more determinedly on something than usual when Yasamin would slip out of her bed around two, slipping into her heavy boots before she tried to slip out the door unnoticed. Even when she tried her best to be quiet, everyone knew when she returned, as there was always a rough, sandpaper-like dragging sound that scuffed the floor and bounced off the walls. She would be heard going past their room, further down the hall to where the Doctor was meant to sleep, and then there would silence for a few moments before Yasamin could be heard coming back to bed. The dragging noise replaced by her heavy steps again.  Valentina and the others decided to  pretend as if they never knew why she was slipping out at night, and if anyone was doing something in the Ether or making any sort of noise, they shut it down and went to bed as well. Hell would be had by the Yellow Pilot if the Doctor was woken up before five after her successful retrieval mission.

 

Yasamin, Valentina could understand, as after a few weeks they too started to feel more at ease when the Doctor had less dark circles underneath his eyes with each day. Kazu, he was just a loud person in general, but not the worst offender. When he came to the room late or got up to use the bathroom late, he was just clumsy, and would stumble into things, accidentally kick the walls in the hall when he was bored on a stroll, and there were some nights he decided to blast his guitar and gravelly singing voice that grated on Valentina’s nerves whenever they tried to relax. However, all of these were forgivable offenses once you took into account the youngest member.

 

The bunks had been arranged so Yasamin slept the closest to the door, Kazu and Valentina following on the lowest level as neither one of them wanted to swing their older bodies up to the upper level each night after training or battles. Cammie, however, had been placed above Valentina’s bunk, which ended up being useful when they needed to wake her without her hearing aids in. Sometimes jostling her didn’t work, and a smack to bed frame that sent her rolling and then falling through the air did a better job off getting her out of bed each day.

 

This also meant, that since Cammie was their resident hacker and gamer, all the light from her consoles and displays would illuminate the room in bright blue. Perhaps if Valentina was in the top bunk, they would’ve been shielded by having a ceiling above them and not the underside of a bunk and then all this open space for the light to pour over and spread around the room. If that wasn’t enough and Valentina debating investing in an eye mask or just wearing their Ether headband to bed, Cammie was always so kind to have her volume on so every beep and keyboard click was resonating into Valentina’s ears. Eventually, she would shut it off, or Valentina would give a swift enough kick or smack to the underside of the bunk and she would get the message and get to sleep, but there was one week where Cammie kept working nonstop and Valentina swore that by the time the fifth morning came Cammie had made them so over sensitive to sound that even inside their Holon their thoughts had become nothing but the typing noise on the digital keyboard.

 

Apparently, the others were unaffected by Cammie’s late night gaming and whatever else she was doing, so no one came to Valentina’s aid when they confronted Cammie about it one night before they all turned in. Kazu even had the nerve to tell them to invest in earplugs, which they slugged him good for. Cammie did seem sorry though, so she tried to turn down the noise for one night, but it simply went back to normal the next night, and so Valentina resigned themselves to this losing battle until it got worse, or until they were able to place an order for earplugs and an eye mask like Kazu suggested.

 

So, when Valentina decided to become one of the people who got up at night to make a cup of tea, and came back to an uncharacteristically dark room around one in the morning, they became especially concerned.

 

It was black and shadowy where there normally would be blue light bouncing off of every corner of the room, but Valentina’s computerized contact lenses helped them see that everyone was in their bed. When they saw that Kazu and Yasamin seemed disturbed by the silence and darkness too, they decided to set their cup of tea on the desk and move towards the bunk above her own.

 

In the few weeks they had been together, through the blessing or curse of connecting with one another mentally on such a deep level, Valentina was able to read the nervous habits of their teammates easily. Kazu’s eyes were open, but he was propped up on one elbow, head in his hand and he worried away at a string on a frayed part of his blanket. At first glance, Yasamin appeared to be asleep. On her side, she faced Kazu’s bunk, her back to Valentina and the door until they walked deeper in. Even then, Valentina didn’t need to look at her to know that she was tense, that she was probably wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to provide some comfort to herself. There was an air of distress mixing around the room, and it was bleeding into Valentina’s thoughts rather quickly.

 

Valentina hated any sort of anxiety.

 

And they knew that the feeling clawing up their throat- the absolute panic and uncertainty that was tangling their hearts up and making them want to vomit- it didn’t belong to Kazu or Yaz.

 

It was completely their own.

 

Valentina didn’t want to shove this feeling down to deal with later, but they felt it explode inside their chest when they finally saw how bad Cammie looked, back flat against the hard surface of her bunk, eyes gone blank as she just stared up at the ceiling, blinking for long intervals when she did seem to snap out of her trance momentarily. Valentina almost jumped back when they finally saw Cammie’s chest rise and fall, she looked _that corpse-like_ and lost, and the way her hand was folded over her heart to follow the rise and fall of each breath made her look like she had been struck in the night by some sort of heart attack or seizure, and it stunned Valentina into silence.

 

The girl had not noticed Valentina yet, and in any other situation when Cammie was without her hearing aids Valentina would’ve just smacked the bedframe to get her attention with the jolt or vibrations, but the sight of Cammie so completely void of technology- no screens, no displays, no programs opened- _terrified them_ to the point that all they could do was reach out and poke the girl.

_“Moyazaika,”_ Even though Camme couldn’t hear their voice, it soothed Valentina’s own mind to hear the nickname pass through her lips. A finger pressed against Cammie’s shoulder, and she startled to life, as if a spell had been broken. Valentina stepped back, watching as the girl spazzed and became animated all too fast. She tried to scramble away from something, backing up and almost smacking her head into the wall behind her, but she ducked at the last second and her eyes went wide, hands coming up to scratch at her throat, and it was then that Valentina swooped in.

 

“Cammie, Cammie,” they kept repeating, even though they knew it was lost to the void. They reached towards the girl, yanking her hands roughly away so they rested in her lap before they grabbed the girl’s face, forcing her to focus. She was hyperventilating, and Valentina probably wasn’t helping them breathe with how they were smushing their cheeks, but Valentina was too overwhelmed by the emotions they could feel pouring out of Cammie to do much else than give her a stern glare.

 

_“Breathe with me,”_ they made sure to enunciate the words so that Cammie could read their lips even if she couldn’t hear her. They stayed like that for a moment, eyes locked on one another as Valentina made sure to emphasize their own inhaling and exhaling, the sounds of Yasamin and Kazu rising out of bed and rushing over giving them more confidence. Cammie’s anxiety and fear was slowly ebbing away from their mind and being replaced with concern from the other two that they needed to focus in order to fix this.

 

Concern was something Valentina could work with. It was productive, it was reassuring, it helped Valentina piece their own thoughts together amidst the chaos.

 

Cammie’s eyes looked past Valentina, darting to the faces of Yasamin and Kazu before they glanced to the bedside table extending from the wall, where Cammie kept her hearing aids stationed. Valentina checked her gaze once more, making sure the girl was sufficiently calm before she pulled her hands away, letting the girl slip the rabbit ears onto her ponytail and turn them on, small little white lights flashing in them as she adjusted them. Valentina felt a flash of pain in their head and a ringing that quickly vanished, and it was clear by the wince on Cammie’s expression that sensation was from her. Yasamin and Kazu flinched, they must have sensed it as well.

 

“Sorry about that,” the girl finally sighed out her first words all evening, “I’ve just been… having some nightmares is all.”

 

It was strange. Cammie was the shortest member on the team, but all three of them were having to crane their necks up to stare at her face. She was kneeling with her head bowed, hands resting on her thighs but she seemed to be trying not to bunch them up into fists, trying her hardest to not show how much she was hurting, but it was coming in waves at the three. Nugget seemed to be able to sense it too, as he jumped off his charging pad and circled around the back of Cammie before hopping and curling up on her lap. The sight of the little animal brought her some calm, and the others decided to make their move.

 

“They’re about that Union mech, aren’t they?” Yasamin asked, and Cammie flinched.

 

“How did you- Well, I guess it must be pretty obvious,” her tone shifted suddenly, becoming much colder as she let out a stale laugh, “I mean, I did get my _head ripped off and all and-”_

 

“Cammie!” Valentina snapped at her, “You seem to forget that we feel what you feel now, we think what you think. And when it’s especially strong, we can even see what _you dream.”_

When Valentina had walked into the room that evening, it was true, they had been struck by more than just unease at the atmosphere in the room, the emotions radiating from Kazu and Yasamin. There had been a flash, back when they were in the kitchen, something that might have jolted Kazu and Yasamin awake and started up those feelings in the first place. Cammie had mentioned at lunch a few days ago she was having weird dreams, but their discussions had revealed it to be a common thing about gen:LOCK pilots. But this dream…

  
Valentina had almost spilled the tea on themselves when they were struck by the hot searing sensation of their neck being pulled apart, metal creaking in their ears as the web of nerves in that location screamed and then died with a horrible flash. White danced in Valentina’s eyes as their knees went weak, and all they could see in their mind was that black Union mech towering over them, red lights on its face and teeth snarling as it seemed to get ever close to them, invading their vision and their mind until it was the only thing that they could think of, see, and imagine.

 

Then, as if someone had snapped, everything was clear again, and Valentina dropped to the floor, their knees giving out and their legs too weak for them to stand again. Tears were falling and they were lucky they let go of the mug right as the dream overtook them, or else they would have dealt with more than just the imaginary burning they felt trailing over their collarbone still.

 

Cammie seemed shocked by this revelation though, as if some invasion of privacy had occurred, and to some extent, it had. But, Cammie had already told them about her dream and they had offered her help, and she had yet to accept it. If anything, it was better this happened now than in their next battle.

 

“They… they’re not that bad. I can deal with them myself, I’ll just-” She moved to disable her hearing aids, suggesting she might sleep, but Valentina frankly did not want to add nightmares to a new quirk of Cammie’s, they had to be annoyed by nightly. Their hand flew out to grab her wrist, and with a quick motion, Cammie was tumbling forward off the bed.

 

Kazu and Yasamin moved in to help catch her, but Valentina caught the brunt of her force. Cammie leaned against Valentina as she was slowly lowered to the ground, Kazu and Yasamin planting reassuring hands on her back as they circled the girl in a strange group hug. Cammie was stiff in their arms, which annoyed Valentina more than they cared to admit. Cammie was supposed to be the bouncy, happy-go-lucky type that Valentina despised, not a cold corpse.

 

“Nonsense. Now, come, _moyazaika._ You will sleep here tonight.”

 

Valentina pushed forward out of the hug to their own bed, guiding Cammie to lay down as they walked to the other side of the bed. Yasamin and Kazu watched as Valentina gathered the blanket to tuck the girl in, but were startled when Valentina shot a glare their way too.

 

_Get over here,_ they hoped their thought got sent to the other too, or at the very least their gaze managed to stir them to action. Valentina couldn’t believe they were doing this, but again, if it was for Cammie, everyone might finally be still for once tonight.

 

Slipping into the bed second, Valentina wrapped Cammie in a hug as the girl twisted around to tuck themselves against Valentina’s shoulder. Yasamin went on the other side, resting her head on her arm as she helped wall Cammie in and keep her warm. That left Kazu, moving behind Valentina to squeeze in and push them all even closer together as they struggled to fit on the tiny bed.

 

“I’m sorry, y’all really don’t have to do this-” Cammie started but Valentina booped her nose and she clammed up.

 

“Listen,” Yasamin said, waving her hand about, “We all are going to see bad things during this war. It’s the nature of the thing, but, just because it happened to you first, doesn’t mean we aren’t going to help you.”

 

“But, I-”

 

“It doesn’t make you weak either,” Valentina added, “You excel in other ways, Cammie, it was only your first combat experience.”

 

_“You’ve improved since then,”_ Kazu chimed in.

 

“But, guys, I really feel that-”

 

“Look, we can discuss this more tomorrow, but it’s already one-fifteen and I want to sleep. No more nightmares, no more emotions. Let’s just sleep,” Valentina interrupted, and the other seemed to agree, moving in closer to surround Cammie even more.

 

In Valentina’s hold, Cammie was squished even more, and while it kept her on edge at first, protests still fresh in her mind, soon, the calm breathing of everyone washed over her, and she found herself melting in the warmth curling around her. She shifted forward a bit, and tucked her head underneath Valentina’s chin, who moved closer and brought one arm up to stroke her hair as they all fell into a quiet lull. Within a few minutes, they felt Yasamin and Kazu’s thoughts leave their minds as the two fell into sleep.

 

“Valentina?” Cammie whispered, once she was certain Yasamin and Kazu weren’t waking up.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Thank you, I… I’m sorry I didn’t come to you guys about it. I thought you would-”

 

“You are a little bunny, you aren’t you if you are moping instead of hopping about. Now, _I’m serious about this-_ sleep.”

 

“Okay.” Cammie blurted out, and shut her eyes, flopping even harder against the pillow for dramatic effect.

 

Valentina kept their eyes open a bit longer, waiting until they felt Cammie’s mind fade away into sleep too, and then, did they finally allow themselves to be taken too.

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to thank Cora and Primal again for being my beta readers on this! They both beta practically every fic I've written for this fandom and are so good. I'm happy for all the new ideas you guys give me, so, thanks!


End file.
